Autumn 1877

Winslow Homer painted this oil on canvas called “Autumn” during the late nineteenth century, in the United States. Here, a fashionable woman stands amongst the fallen leaves. Her clothing immediately indicates that she is from a privileged social class. However, she is outside the domestic sphere, in a space generally inhabited by working-class men. We can understand Homer’s artistic project as a reaction against European painting styles that dominated American art institutions at the time. Instead, he looked to distinctly American subjects. It has been suggested that, through his paintings, Homer explored the changing role of women in the American social landscape. What did it mean for women to be placed in the public eye? And how did this change the way they were represented in art? These are the kinds of questions a social art historian might ask when interpreting Homer's art. By exploring the institutional history of the art world, we can better understand this painting.